Objective: Renal cancers are highly resistant to standard hormonal therapy, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, and the survival rates are extremely low. Betulinic acid is a pentasilic triterpenoid saponin of lupine type obtained from various natural plants, especially from the shell of Betula plant. Betulinic acid was shown both in in vivo, and in vitro to have the ability to induce apoptotic pathways causing no toxicity for normal cells, and also has immunomodulatory effects. The aim of the present project is to investigate the anticancer effects of betulinic acid on CAKI-2 (ATCC® HTB-47™; clear cell renal carcinoma), ACHN (ATCC® CRL-1611™; renal cell adenocarcinoma) and MRC-5 (ATCC® CCL-171™: normal lung fibroblast) cell lines. Materials and Methods: The dose, and time-dependent cell viability was determined using the WST-1 test first in cell lines, and then apoptotic activity was determined with Annexin-V, apoptosis related nucleosomal enrichment factor levels, and Caspase 3 / BCA activity. Results: Betulinic acid reduced the CAKI-2, and ACHN cell viability in dose, and time-dependent manner inducing the apoptotic pathway. Conclusion: Researchers in the present study concluded in accordance with the results of Annexin-V, apoptosis-associated nucleosomal enrichment factor levels and Caspase 3 / BCA activity that betulinic acid triggered the apoptosis in both renal cancer cell lines, especially by the Caspase 3 activity.
Renal cancer is the most lethal urological cancer and characterized by high metastasis rate at initial diagnosis and drug resistance to current chemotherapeutics. Betulinic acid is a pentacyclic triterpene with broad biological activity that occurs naturally in variety of plants. Even though the anti-cancer e cacy of betulinic acid have been reported by many studies, the information about the pathways and the molecules which are affected by betulinic acid in renal cancer are limited. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is considered as the initial step of metastasis and contributes to drug resistance of cancer cells. Depending on the role of EMT in cancer progression and drug resistance, targeting EMT may represent an effective strategy in this context. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the anti-metastatic effects of betulinic acid on renal cell carcinoma cells by evaluating two EMT markers, SNAIL-1, and SDC-2. Following the treatment of betulinic acid at determined doses by WST-1 cytotoxicity assay in our previous study, SDC-2 expression level was decreased in both cell lines. Additionally, in correlation with this result, we also found a reduction in SDC-2 and SNAIL-1 protein levels which are measured by ELISA. Furthermore, the migration and invasion capacities were suppressed by betulinic acid treatment in metastatic renal adenocarcinoma ACHN cells. Taken together, our ndings indicate that betulinic acid may constitute a potential treatment approach for renal cancer with further investigations.
PurposeSince oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients are exhausted against the powerful chemotherapies and radiotherapies after surgeries, therefore most of the studies still look for less toxic but effective alternatives with new ideas such as antibiotic combinations.MethodsThe antiproliferative and apoptotic outcomes of levofloxacin with cisplatin combination as well as their single usage were examined with WST-1, Caspase-3/BCA and Annexin-V methods on SCC-15 cells and on a healthy cell line (MRC-5).Results24h treatment of 50 mM single levofloxacin, 50 mM single cisplatin and 50 mM levofloxacin-cisplatin combination resulted in cell viability rates of SCC-15 cells as 90%, 67% and 80.8% respectively. Caspase-3 enzyme activity was enhanced 0.92-fold for single levofloxacin, 13.05-fold for single cisplatin and 9.73-fold for the combination of levofloxacin-cisplatin, the total apoptotic activity of single levofloxacin, single cisplatin and levofloxacin-cisplatin combination were observed as 4.88%, 21.14% and 16.21% respectively on SCC-15. Also MRC-5 were showed the lower toxicity than cancer cells via apoptosis.ConclusionLevofloxacin-cisplatin combination results have also ended up apoptotic results with less toxicity for cells than single cisplatin treatment. Therefore, our apoptotic findings suggest that the different dosage combinations with levofloxacin and cisplatin are necessary to understand the interaction for the treatment of tongue squamous cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVES: Betulinic acid is pentacyclic triterpenoid known to exert antitumor effects by modulating many cellular pathways in various human malignancies. However, its modulatory role in autophagy in renal cell carcinoma remains unclear. Here, we observed how betulinic acid affects autophagy in renal cell carcinoma cells. METHODS: After treating cells with betulinic acid, we determined the gene expression and protein levels of Beclin-1 and ATG-5 by qPCR and ELISA assay to observe its effects on autophagy. RESULTS: The qPCR results demonstrated that Beclin-1 expression level was low in untreated metastatic renal adenocarcinoma ACHN cells and increased in response to 25 μM and 50 μM betulinic acid treatment. ATG-5 expression level was decreased in primary clear cell renal cell carcinoma CAKI-2 cells treated with 50 μM betulinic acid. In the ELISA assay results, we observed that betulinic acid caused a decrease in Beclin-1 protein level at 25 μM concentration and in ATG-5 protein level at 50 μM concentration in CAKI-2 cells. CONCLUSION: In our preliminarily study, it was concluded that the role of autophagy may differ in renal cell carcinoma cells depending on their origin and that the effects of betulinic acid on autophagy in these cells may vary accordingly (Fig. 4, Ref. 40).
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